


Unusual Events

by Ephemera_pop (Alex_Draven)



Category: Popslash
Genre: Animal Transformation, M/M, Multi, Secret Santa, Unicorns, mtyg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-25
Updated: 2012-12-25
Packaged: 2018-10-19 15:16:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10642524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alex_Draven/pseuds/Ephemera_pop
Summary: “You have to fly out here.”JC wasn’t normally so bossy - or so straight to the point - so the voicemail got Joey’s attention straight away.“Joe, I ….” JC’s voice trailed off. “Just get here.” There was something tense and desperate in JC’s voice that tugged hard at Joey's heart strings.That was when Joey pulled over, not caring that he was blocking someone’s driveway, and called JC straight back. He’d never doubted the depth or strength of their relationship, however non-conventional it was, but JC was just about the most self-sufficient person Joey knew, and he couldn’t remember a time when JC had come so close to begging for Joey’s time or attention.Joey’s cell rang endlessly in his ear. No answer. Normally that would just meant that JC was locked in a studio somewhere, or had left his cell in yesterday’s jeans, or turned it off so it wouldn’t kill a good vibe, but after that message … Joey couldn’t help but worry.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [walk like a camelidae](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/284115) by thissugarcane. 



> Written for Chalcopyrite, for Make the Yuletide Gay, 2012

“You have to fly out here.”

JC wasn’t normally so bossy - or so straight to the point - so the voicemail got Joey’s attention straight away.

“Joe, I ….” JC’s voice trailed off. “Just get here.” There was something tense and desperate in JC’s voice that tugged hard at Joey's heart strings.

That was when Joey pulled over, not caring that he was blocking someone’s driveway, and called JC straight back. He’d never doubted the depth or strength of their relationship, however non-conventional it was, but JC was just about the most self-sufficient person Joey knew, and he couldn’t remember a time when JC had come so close to begging for Joey’s time or attention.

Joey’s cell rang endlessly in his ear. No answer. Normally that would just meant that JC was locked in a studio somewhere, or had left his cell in yesterday’s jeans, or turned it off so it wouldn’t kill a good vibe, but after that message … Joey couldn’t help but worry.

He hung up, and pulled up AJ’s number. Same result - although AJ didn’t share JC’s hatred of voicemail so Joey found himself talking after the beep.

“Hey, AJ! It’s Joey - Fatone. Just calling up to see how you all are doing. Hope recording’s going well, and JC hasn’t been driving y’all crazy with five zillion takes of every idea. Call me sometime, yeah?”

To his own ears, his cheer sounded forced, but he didn’t know how else to play it. What if JC was having some kind of family crisis or medical freak-out? He hated having people get involved in his personal business unless they were very clearly involved, even friends and collaborators like the Boys had become, and most likely AJ was just in the same studio, hard at work. That’s what JC was out there to do, after all. Probably there was nothing to worry about, and JC was just …

Joey couldn’t think of any non-worrying reasons why JC would have called and asked Joey to get on a plane like that.

Traffic whizzed by outside his car window, but the mundane world of drive-time commuting didn’t really impinge. Joey thumbed through his contacts list. Lance was out in Japan, and Joey couldn't imagine JC confiding in Nick, and in any case, if they were in the studio, they’d all be in the studio. He knew Becca was on maternity leave, but he didn’t have a number for the temp PA JC was using. He couldn’t even remember the kid’s name, which made him feel faintly guilty, but mostly more anxious, because there was JC out in California without his usual support team around him, and here he was, sitting in Florida, too far away to know what was going on.

He called Kelly, who did what she always did when he got stressed out - listened to him talk himself in circles, then cut straight to the point.

“Joe-bear. Go to the airport. I’ll see if I can book something for you online before you get there. What ever’s going on, if JC asked you to fly out, you should go. I can pick the kids up later, and Janine and my folks are coming round tomorrow anyway. We’ll be fine - you go make sure he is, too. That’s how family works, babe.”

“I … “

“Love you, Kelly Baldwin-Fatone,” Kelly finished his sentence for him. “I know, now go get on a plane so you can come back sooner.”

“You’re incredible, you know that?”

“Yup. And you’re not too shabby either.”

*****

He called JC again from the airport, waiting in line for security, and again from the departure lounge with no answer, and then, just before the air crew had them turn off their electronics, sent a text message that read “on my way.”

JC didn’t normally do texts, but then he didn’t normally leave voicemail asking Joey to fly across country either.

When Joey switched his cell back on at the other end, thumbing the screen one handed while dodging clusters of business folks with trundle cases and students with backpacks bigger than they were, there were two missed calls - both from a withheld number - and one voicemail text.

The voicemail was from Brian - and Joey couldn’t remember ever exchanging phone numbers with Brian so that didn’t set his mind at rest any, but at least the guy gave clear directions.

Joey took a cab to the address Brian had left him, and spent the whole ride staring out of the side window. No matter how many times he was out here to work, or to see people, LA never felt that welcoming, and he could never reliably get his bearings. As soon as the cab turned off the main intersection outside the airport, Joey was lost, and after a few minutes of frowning at billboards, he shook himself, and made himself focus on his phone again, this time texting Bri, and Kelly, to let them know he was back on the ground, that he was on his way to JC. That, at least for now, all was well.

*****

The studio was surprisingly secluded - out in the suburbs, in the lee of a hill, cloaked in overgrown scrubby trees and not as swish as Joey would have assumed, given some of the producers Backstreet were working with. Still, the driveway had space for a half-dozen cars to park up, and the windows were lit up.

Joey leaned forward to pay the driver, adding an extra twenty when the guy agreed to stay put for five minutes, to make sure someone answered the door.

Out of the cab, he could hear muffled music coming from inside the building - nothing he recognised, but nothing that sounded like a recording studio at work either - and as he passed the window to get to the front door, he could see the dim shapes of people moving around through the thin drapes.

There was an intercom looking out of place, shiny and slick against the worn paint of the door frame, and when Joey hit the “call” button, it lit up blue.

“Hey, guys. It’s Joey,” he called, and then, after a moment or two with no reaction, “Anyone home?”

The door clicked open, and Joey gave it a shove. He spotted Brian, and turned back to wave over his shoulder to the cab driver.

“Hey, Brian,” he said, ducking for an awkward half-hug-half-handshake, and peered over Brian’s shoulder, looking for JC.

“Joey, man. It’s good to see you. Come on in.”

Joey followed Brian back into the studio’s hallway - all framed celebrity candid photos and oversize mirrors.

“I’m glad you could get over here,” Brian continued, and then - finally - “JC’s out back, and he was pretty sure you were the guy for the job.”

“The job?” Joey asked, totally at a loss.

“Yeah, um - it’s probably best if - come on through. It’s kind of tough to explain.”

The studio’s hallway tracked three sides of a square - Joey glimpsed a formal lounge, and an open-plan reception room with an oversize metal staircase running up and down, and then, around the final corner, a large kitchen-diner, the source of the music and voices - it was a big room, but it seemed like all of the Boys had a partner or sibling or parent crammed in there.

“Hi, Kevin.” Joey managed to bite back the 'What are you doing here?' that was on the tip of his tongue, and diverted it to “Is JC around?”

“Uh, yeah. He’s, um ….”

Kevin gestured towards the far side of the breakfast bar, and the hubbub in the room dropped off, and people shuffled around to clear a path.

And there was JC, sitting on the floor, and -

“You’re stroking a unicorn.”

Joey hadn’t meant to say that quite so forcibly, but JC was sitting on the floor, and lying next to him, head resting in JC’s lap while JC petted its forehead around the horn was a...a...

“That’s a unicorn. That can’t be a unicorn. JC, what is going on?”

JC looked up, and his expression was so full of relief the part of Joey that had gone from worried to kind of pissed when it seemed like JC had just called him on a whim melted right away again.

“Joe! You’re here!”

JC elbowed the animal in its broad chest, and the ...

“Unicorn?” Joey found himself saying out loud.

The unicorn responded - although whether to JC’s nudge or Joey’s words, who could say - with a startled toss of its head, which made the long, spiral, actual-fact horn glint in the light from the spots above the breakfast bar.

JC scrambled to his feet, and reached out to take Joey’s hand, but instead of stepping closer, Joey held firm, and tugged JC closer instead, away from the sharp, pointy horn, and into a tight embrace. He needed to cling for a second, and the way JC melted into him, he wasn’t the only one.

It never failed to make his heart catch, the way the two of them just fit together, totally differently than the way he fit with Kelly, but totally right, and Joey turned to rub his cheek against JC’s stubble.

“Hi,” he whispered into JC’s ear, acutely aware of all the people around them.

“Hi,” JC whispered back, with another tight squeeze, and then they stepped back, although JC hung on to Joey’s hand, keeping them connected.

“So, um, this is about the unicorn, right?” Joey found himself asking, because - seriously! He just could not seem to get past that - it was like real-life CGI, because if that was a pony in a costume, whoever did the make-up deserved an award on the spot.

“AJ,” JC replied, and there was a brief moment where Joey tried to make sense of the crush of the Boy’s nearest and dearest and the way Denise had her arm around Rochelle’s shoulders, but - why would someone bring a unicorn to an intervention?

Then the unicorn lurched to its feet - hooves? - which meant that it suddenly took up a lot more space in the room. Joey backed up a couple of strides, dragging JC along with him, until JC shook his head.

“Joey - this is AJ. That’s why we needed you to be here.”

There was no part of that sentence that made any sense.

“Excuse us a second,” Joey announced to the rest of the room, and led JC back out into the hallway. He really did not need an audience right now.

Back by the staircases, Joey stopped, and turned around. He tangled his fingers with JC’s and looked him right in the eye.

“Jace - start from the beginning? Please?”

“Um - he was like this when Nick woke me up this morning, so I don’t know exactly - I mean, last night was pretty normal, we were just jamming, messing around with some ideas that probably won’t even go anywhere, and then Ava started crying, so he went to be active-daddy, and give Rochelle a chance to get some sleep, and I just kind of packed up, and …”

“But this morning?” Joey tried to nudge JC back on track.

“This morning, Nick came down to make some coffee, and there was AJ, in the kitchen.”

“Right.” Joey nodded.

“He’s turned into a unicorn,” JC said, as if Joey was being slow understanding the nature of the problem.

“AJ has turned into a unicorn,” Joey repeated. “How would you even reach that conclusion?”

JC glared at Joey. “That’s AJ. He knows stuff only AJ knows, and - well - he has the tattoos still, and - he just is. How did you know it was Lance when, you know.. The llama incident.”

“But unicorns don’t exist!”

“And people don’t normally turn into llamas, so - why not a unicorn?”

“I don’t …. This doesn’t make any sense.” Joey shook his head. “And Brian said something about me being the right man for the job - what does that even mean?”

JC frowned. “But, you fixed Lance,” he said, as though that was the most self-evident thing in the world, rather than a deeply strange period in Joey’s life that he generally tried not to think about in specifics, even though he was pretty happy with how everything had worked out afterwards.

“You told them.” Joey waved towards the kitchen. “About Lance?”

“No, Lance told them about Lance, but I think they think he was joking.”

“Right - whatever. And he’s in Japan. Of course, he would be when something like this strikes on his own doorstep. But you think I can do something to turn AJ back? ‘C, you realise that the whole thing with Lance was either a totally utterly random act of chance, or something very specific about him, and me, and where we were in our lives back then? And they think Lance is joking, but they all accept that AJ’s up and turned into a freaking unicorn?”

“Hey, um - not meaning to, like, interrupt or anything,” Howie interrupted Joey’s rant. “But, maybe if you come back into the kitchen and actually talk with AJ?”

Joey threw up his hands. “Fine, fine - let’s go do that. I just think y’all are going to be sorely disappointed.”

Joey followed Howie and JC back into the kitchen, and reluctantly approached the unicorn, who was nuzzling lovingly at Rochelle’s bare arm.

“Hi, AJ?” Joey said, and couldn’t help making it a question.

The unicorn turned its head to look at Joey.

Joey had no idea what to say next, but after a long moment of silence - conversation amongst everyone else having apparently been shelved in favour of the floor show - the unicorn made an exaggerated nodding movement, which Joey mostly registered as “the unicorn is waving that sharp pointy horn around”.

Then the unicorn took a couple of steps forward, hooves sounding sharply on the tiled floor, and turned its head to one side, exposing its neck on the side where the long white mane wasn’t. The red and black ink visible under the unicorn’s coat was distorted, but still recognisably AJ’s skull-rose tattoo.

Joey reached out to touch, without thinking about it too much, and then jumped when the unicorn snorted, and swung its head around. This time Joey was pretty sure he was supposed to be noticing the sharp pointy part.

“Hey, dude - sorry! I should have asked.”

The unicorn flared his nostrils, and rolled his eyes, and then looked away again, giving Joey a clear view of the pattern of ink trailing up and down his shoulder and foreleg. It was a very AJ thing to do.

“So, can you fix him?” JC asked.

“I don’t know,” Joey said, even though that was clearly not what people wanted him to say. “I don’t really know how I fixed Lance. Or if I fixed Lance, or if it was just a random coincidence.”

The level of noise in the room cranked up a few notches as people turned to each other to discuss this new development - Joey heard Nick tell Leighanne 'you know how JC is sometimes' and Kevin was muttering to Howie, and glaring at Joey like he advertised his services as a unicorn transformation specialist with a money-back warranty or something.

AJ scraped one hoof against the tile, and when he had everyone’s attention, pointed forcibly with his muzzle towards the hallway. He repeated the charade once more, when no one started moving, and then Kevin seemed to get the message.

“Guys, maybe we need to give them a little space? I think AJ wants some privacy. Let's head on through to the lounge.”

Brian and Howie followed Kevin’s lead and started ushering their friends and relations out of the kitchen. Nick detoured to give AJ’s ears a quick scritch on his way past, and the way AJ notched his head over Rochelle’s shoulder in a parting hug laid to rest any remaining doubts Joey might have had about who was in there.

When it was just AJ, JC and Joey in the room, JC reached over to turn the music down, and then started opening cupboards and drawers.

AJ and Joey just watched him for a while, until JC noticed the weight of their gazes.

“Oh, sorry - I just wanted a drink, and Joey - no one’s even offered you anything after your flight. I think we have the stuff for a pomegranate mock-tail. AJ, do you think you can drink orange juice right now?”

AJ gave the equine version of a shrug, and JC busied himself with ice and three different boxes of juice.

“You have any ideas why this happened?” Joey asked AJ, going for a casual I-interview-unicorns-all-the-time sort of vibe.

AJ shook his head.

“But JC and Lance have told you about … with the llama?”

AJ nodded.

“Did either of them mention what it was we think changed him back?”

AJ nodded again.

“You want to try that?”

This time the nod seemed less enthusiastic, but still clearly a “yes”.

Joey looked up, to find JC standing with his back to the kitchen units, two glasses of some flame coloured layered drink in his hands, and giving him an understanding smile.

“This ok with you, JC?” Joey asked.

JC nodded, and raised a class in salute.

“OK, so here goes …” Joey bent over, and kissed AJ on the muzzle.

Nothing happened. No tingle, no sense of magic in the air, just - a slight tickle against his lips that was far too reminiscent of kissing someone with facial hair.

He straightened up and looked AJ in the eye.

“You feel anything?”

AJ shook his head.

“OK, so we ruled out the Joey Fatone Magic Transformational Kiss theory,” Joey said. “One down, however many more to go.”

“We don’t know that,” JC chimed in, offering Joey a Virgin Sunset. “Maybe he needs to sleep for the transformation to happen - that’s what happened with Lance.”

“Maybe.” Joey took the drink, and JC turned around to pour another into a salad bowl that AJ could drink out of. “I don’t think it’s going to work, though. I know we didn’t ever really talk about it much, once it was over, but I always figured either it was just that Lance’s llama time was up, or,” and here Joey took a sip of juice to cover his embarrassment, “the whole magic thing was about learning a lesson, and it was what we figured out with that kiss, not the kiss itself, that did it.”

You wouldn’t think something that was basically a pony could have a “so tell me more” expression, but AJ very clearly did.

Joey sighed.

“Look, I can’t speak for Lance - you guys really need to call him direct for this stuff - but back then, I was pretty rigid in my thinking, in terms of being attracted to guys as well as girls, and about whether you could love more than one person at a time. Missing Lance the way I did when he wasn’t human anymore kind of - got me thinking on that, helped me realise some stuff. Even though we didn’t work out romantically, that was the start of a whole bunch of stuff - for me, and I think for Lance. At the least he didn’t have to worry about his best friend being a “straight and narrow” type any more, you know?”

Joey could feel his cheeks burning - he never normally talked about any of this stuff. He was more an actions than a words guy.

“You got anything like that we might need to help you work on?” he asked AJ, only to get an amused snort in reply. At least Joey thought it was amused, and looked to JC for confirmation.

JC smiled, and shook his head. “I don’t know, cat,” he said, addressing AJ. “You seem pretty laid back and self-accepting, not to mention open to all kinds of freaky shit, and you and Rochelle, dude - you guys have this total glow around you - all three of you.”

AJ shook his mane out of his eyes, and gave JC a grateful nudge.

“How long was Lance a llama, anyway,” JC asked. “It was a few weeks, right?”

“Three, four - I don’t remember exactly.”

AJ gave a full body shake, and then tapped a hoof against the floor, and waved his horn urgently towards the old-fashioned phone hanging on the wall.

“You want me to call Lance?” Joey asked. “Does anyone know what the time difference is to Kyoto?”

JC shrugged. “Does it matter? Lance is Lance - he’ll turn his phone off if doesn’t want to be disturbed.”

AJ nodded in agreement, and JC did have a point.

Joey pulled out his cell, and called Lance, and put him on speaker, only to find himself listening to Lance’s non-specific voice mail message.

“Hey, dude. It’s Joey, I’m here with JC and AJ - give us a call back when you get this.”

After Joey broke the connection, he found himself looking blankly at JC and AJ.

“So what do we do next?” he asked, and a wave of exhaustion washed over him. Screw ‘what time is it in Japan’ - it was late here in LA, and super-late back in Florida, and he’d been up before dawn with Kloe...

JC shrugged. “I don’t know. Having you come out here and kiss it better was kind of the whole of my plan.”

Joey couldn’t help but smile; however surreal the situation, that was so JC.

“Maybe we should sleep on it - just in case. It wasn’t instant with Lance either.”

Joey shook his head. “I don’t think it’s going to be that simple, but, I gotta admit. I could use some sleep. It’s been a long-ass day. Is that OK, AJ?”

The unicorn didn’t immediately pitch a fit, so Joey continued. “I guess we better let the others know that Private Time is over, then.”

JC led the way, and Joey just followed along in a daze. He propped himself up against the door frame while JC spoke to Kevin, and just sort of stayed there as JC moved on to Nick, and people moved past Joey, out of the room, going to bed, or down into the basement, or back into the kitchen to be with AJ. It seemed like things had pretty much split up by family - Howie and Leigh carrying a pair of sleeping boys up to bed, Brian and Leighanne tiptoeing up behind, and only Kevin, Rochelle and Denise going back into the kitchen.

He figured that everyone who was recording must already have a room here - residential studio with built-in mini-creche was how things seemed to work these days - but where were they going to find rooms for Denise and Kevin, and how were they going to keep the residential studio crew out of the kitchen? Joey assumed there was a residential studio manager - there usually was.

JC and Nick wrapped up their conversation, and Nick came past, giving Joey a warm pat on the shoulder as he did.

“Thanks for trying, man,” Nick said, and then vanished down into the basement.

Joey blinked slowly at JC. “Is there a crew guy living in?”

JC tilted his head, and then seemed to catch up with Joey’s train of thought.

“Not right now. We were just tooling around, throwing ideas around, getting warmed up, you know? The engineering crew don’t show up for, like, two weeks or something.”

“Tha’s good.” Joey nodded, slurring his words. “Bed?”

JC put his arm around Joey’s waist, arranging Joey’s arm over his shoulder in something halfway between a hug, and a pack-strap carry.

“Bed,” JC agreed, and they lurched companionably back up the corridor. For a moment Joey could forget all the stress and surreality of the day, and just appreciate having his boyfriend close and touching.

From the bottom of the stairs, as JC untangled himself, they could hear talking from the kitchen, and Joey felt a twinge of guilt, and uncomfortably like he was intruding when he heard the hitch of tears in Rochelle’s voice as she told AJ that she missed him.

JC kept hold of Joey hand, and Joey followed, blearily stumbling up flight of stairs.

He barely managing to kick his sneakers off before he hit the bed.

*****

The next morning, Joey woke up to bright sunshine and the sound of someone - and he would have bet money it was Nick - whooping and cheering from downstairs.

JC was curled up next to him, and showed no signs of waking, so Joey lifted JC’s limp arm, and wriggled free. He snagged sweats and a t-shirt from the open bag by the door, pulled them on and padded downstairs barefoot, heart in his mouth.

The noise led him to the kitchen, where - damnit! AJ was still a unicorn.

Specifically, he was a unicorn with three oranges speared on his horn, bright pink ribbons braided into his mane, and a giggling two-year-old bouncing up and down on his back, kicking his sides and yelling ‘Giddyup!’ while he carefully walked up and down the width of the kitchen and dining room.

There were discarded cereal bowls scattered around the kitchen, and apparently someone thought it was a good idea to leave Nick and unicorn-AJ in charge of the Backstreet Kids, which sort of explained the excitement level. Nick was chasing the three older boys around the kitchen amid much squealing and taunting, as they threatened to pelt him with more oranges, or possibly tried to get past him to add to AJ’s horn decorations. Joey wasn’t entirely sure.

AJ was definitely still a unicorn, though.

At least someone had thought to switch on the coffee machine, which was conveniently this side of the kitchen, and Joey managed to pour two mugs and escape again without interrupting anyone’s fun and games. He wasn’t feeling much like playing right then; even though he’d been the one saying that the kiss hadn’t worked last night, he’d been so hopeful that maybe it had when he woke up...

Back in the peace and quiet of JC’s temporary quarters, Joey put the mugs down on the bedside table, and sat on the edge of the bed to wake JC up.

One and a half coffees, and a hot shower later, JC was awake enough for Joey to move the conversation past "Yes, I'm here, no it wasn't a dream, love you too."

"It didn't work – AJ's still, you know."

"Oh, " JC said, frowning. "That's not …"

"Yeah," Joey sighed. "Like I said, we never did figure out what really fixed Lance, and who even knows if this is the same thing?"

"We have to try, though. I mean, Ava's pretty excited about having a pet unicorn to play with, but she's already missing her daddy, and then there's everyone else..."

Joey hated to hear JC sounding so down. "I didn't say we shouldn't try, Jace. I mean, let's assume this is related to the llama thing, maybe we can figure out something from that."

JC nodded slowly. "I was thinking about this all day yesterday. What if it isn't you,it's someone who's like you in the pattern of AJ's life?"

"Go on," Joey nodded encouragingly, thumb rubbing circles on JC's bare ankle.

"Like, what if one of the other boys has, you know, feelings for AJ that they can't admit even to themselves..."

"Yeah – that makes at least as much sense as anything else. So, what, we suggest they take it in turns to smooch the unicorn?"

"I guess," JC was saying, when Joey's phone started ringing.

"Lance! Boy, is it good to hear your voice. Hang on – let me put you on speaker – I'm with JC."

There was a few minutes of catching up, and saying hi, and what's the weather like where you are, and then Joey decided he had to bite the bullet and get to the point.

"So, AJ's still a unicorn," he announced.

"So JC's magic kiss theory didn't take then? It seemed kind of plausible, all things considered." Lance didn't seem overly bothered by the news.

"Do you remember how long you were a llama for? It was three, four weeks, right?"

"just over four weeks." Lance's reply was immediate. "One lunar cycle, almost exactly."

"Oh," said JC, a little sadly.

"We, um, need you to tell us what you remember from being a llama," Joey said, because even if that did sound like maybe llamas and unicorns had something in common with werewolves, he didn't want to make assumptions, or admit defeat that easily.

"Like, what did you learn from the experience, " JC followed up, leaning in to the phone.

"That being randomly turned into a fuzzy pack animal pretty much sucks?"

"Laaance," JC wheedled. "I'm serious."

"So am I, 'C," came Lance's reply. "I woke up and I was a freaking llama – mostly I was learning how to manage a ruminant's digestive system, and how to play football while walking on my fingers. Turns out, llamas don't have a lot of deep philosophical thoughts – I don't think it was really a learning moment, JC, at least not for me."

"Huh," Joey said. "I guess we were hoping you might have some ideas about what we might try to turn AJ back."

"Sorry, man. I don't know what happened, or if it was just random, or what. The whole thing was pretty strange, right?"

"Well, yeah …"

"I mean, I'm not entirely sure we didn't all hallucinate it or something. I'm not actually convinced I'm not hallucinating this phone call. Seriously, every phone call I've had in the last twenty-four hours, even, because, of the two options, 'AJ McLean has turned into a unicorn' is way less likely than the idea that I shouldn't have drunk whatever that was they were offering around in the kitty hotel. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I am either dreaming this whole call, or talking complete gibberish to your voicemail, so I'm going to hang up now. Catch you later, Joey."

Lance hung up, and Joey and JC just looked at each other.

"Well, that kind of rules out one whole set of options," Joey said, eventually. He wasn't sure how he felt about Lance's attitude to the situation, or, apparently, the llama-related phase of their personal history.

"Maybe he's right?" JC said. "Maybe it is just totally random. I'm sorry, Joe."

"Hey! What's to be sorry for?"

"I dragged you all the way across the country, Joe! You should be home with Kelly and the girls, not out here dealing with my stupid theories."

"Jace, it isn't stupid. It wasn't stupid to think it might be something related to the llama thing, and even if it is totally random, it isn't stupid to want to have someone who loves you out here with you when things go truly bizarre at you."

"No, but it is selfish." JC pulled away from Joey's hand, and wrapped his arms around his knees, looking the picture of misery.

"Hey!" Joey wasn't about to let JC turn all his stress and disappointment in on himself. "Jace, it isn't selfish to want to have me around when you're going through something, and this whole crazy situation totally counts at something." He shifted on the bed, pulling JC into a sideways hug. "It's not selfish. Not letting me know what was going on, not letting me help you, that would have been selfish."

JC shook his head. "You should be home with the girls. Kelly must be so mad at me. I'm sorry."

Joey shook JC's shoulders gently. "Shut up! You know who brought me the plane ticket that got me here? Who it was telling me that I needed to get out here and be with you because that's how family works. That was Kelly, because she's smarter than both of us put together!"

JC sniffed. "Really?"

"Really. Jace." Joey tightened his hug, and turned his head to kiss JC on the temple. "You want me to call her right now so she can tell you herself? You know she means the world to me, but so do you, and she knows that, too. Hell – I'd fall apart without either of you."

"But Kloe, and Bri - "

"Stop it," Joey interrupted, firmly. "I love my girls, too, and yes, I want to be with them every time that I can be, but that's because they're kids, not because I love them more or less than you. We're family, babe. That means you're all important."

JC turned into Joey arms, and buried his face into Joey's shoulder. "Just a boyfriend." His voice was muffled, but Joey heard the words, like punches to his diaphragm.

"Hey! None of that. You're not "just" anything to me, and if I've let you think that, then I'm the crappy boyfriend here, not you."

"No," JC pulled free. "You're not, it's just – being surrounded by all these happy families, and AJ and Rochelle are just – you can see how much they love each other, and the way they love Ava, and I'm not anyone's parent -"

"Jesus freaking Christ, JC! Don't you ever let our girls hear you say that!" Joey snapped, and JC looked up at him, all wide eyes and hurt. "What part of family are you not getting, Jace? Where's this come from, huh?"

JC just shook his head mutely, and Joey tugged him closer again, wrapping himself around JC, trying to offer comfort and love the best way he could. He didn't have to understand in detail to know that his lover needed the contact, and the reassurance, however freaked out Joey himself was by the sudden revelation of this vein of uncertainty.

They rocked gently together, Joey's hands stroking gently over JC's tense shoulders, and eventually JC took a deep breath, and relaxed, going limp in Joey's arms.

"Wow. It's been a while since I freaked out like that, huh?" JC said lightly, but Joey wasn't ready to gloss things over just yet.

"Come here, babe," he said, encouraging JC to lie down again, next to him. AJ's situation was too bizarre to handle, but making sure JC knew exactly how much he was loved was something Joey thought could handle.

They cuddled for a while, and then Joey reached for his phone, scrolling through the evidence of the web of love between his whole untraditional family where JC couldn't help but see – past the photos of Kloe reaching out with messy hands for her "CC!", and the recordings of Bri's compositions that she had Joey record her playing so they could send them to JC, and the texts from Kelly, asking how JC was doing, and sending her love... JC reached out and stroked the screen back and forth between a photo of Kelly and Joey blowing kisses to the camera, and one of him, with Bri and Kloe clinging to his shoulders, heads thrown back laughing as he span them in circles on the beach.

Then JC squirmed and turned around in Joey's arms.

"We may not be normal, but we're good, aren't we?" he said.

"Yup," Joey said. "And who cares about normal."

JC smiled, and rolled closer, catching Joey's lips in a soft-lipped kiss.

Joey pressed back, pulling JC closer still, so every part of them was touching, and started to deepen the kiss, when they were startled out of the moment by a sudden shriek from downstairs.

They froze, staring at each other for a moment, then scrambled out of bed to race down to the kitchen, where they found a whole crowd of Backstreet and family all staring at a blushing but very human AJ, covering his privates with a dishcloth. Pink ribbons and orange pulp dripped from his hair.

*click*

Joey leaned over Howie's shoulder, and took another priceless photo that he would only ever share with his unusual family.

Apparently, everything was back to being good.

*****


End file.
